Italy’s Mount Etna, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has blown its top again. The mid-August eruption, the latest in a long line of rumblings from the Sicilian mountain, soon “evolved into a ‘lava fountain’” that produced a “volcanic cloud dispersed in a southerly direction” and forced the temporary closure of a local airport,…
A spate of shark attacks off the Northeast coast has swimmers and surfers on edge. What’s behind the biting spree? Here’s everything you need to know: Are shark attacks increasing? The number of people bitten by sharks worldwide has held steady at about 70 or 80 a year over the past decade. But the U.S.…
The effects of climate change are making themselves known as this year hits new records of uncertainty. And these records are just the beginning if humanity doesn’t change course. 1 Hottest month on record This year saw a sweltering summer with July 2023 being declared the hottest month on record, according to Copernicus Climate Change…
Days of unprecedented heavy downpours around Beijing, China’s capital, have triggered massive flooding and landslides, leaving at least 20 people dead and 27 missing. Authorities have deemed it the heaviest deluge in a decade, as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri batter the area. Two days of intense rain prompted the city to close tourist attractions…
NASA lost contact with its Voyager 2 probe and potentially may not hear from it until October. Voyager 2 is located 12.4 billion miles from the Earth and is no longer able to receive commands or send data, CBS News reported. This is because a “series of planned commands” sent to the probe “inadvertently caused the…
You can no longer buy most types of incandescent light bulbs in U.S. stores, after an energy efficiency rule from 2007 went into effect on Tuesday, 16 years later. The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, signed by former President George W. Bush, set up standards where light bulbs have to produce at least 45…
Climate change isn’t just limited to above the planet’s surface. The temperature is rising underground as well, putting densely built cities at risk, according to a study published in the journal Communications Engineering. The study found that urban areas struggle with subsurface heat islands, which are “an underground climate change responsible for environmental, public health, and…
Texas has been breaking all sorts of records, and that’s mostly bad news. As a heat dome settled over Texas in June, trapping brutal heat and humidity underneath, high temperature records were broken across the state. It was so hot in Texas, meteorologist Ben Noll noted, that the only rivals on planet Earth were “the Sahara…
A submersible en route to the ruins of the shipwrecked RMS Titanic lost contact with its mother ship and was declared missing with five people aboard. After days of searching, all that was found was debris near the site of the Titanic believed to be the submersible. Following the finding, OceanGate Expeditions, the company responsible for the expedition, declared that…